I was sent a free copy of The Courtesan’s Daughter by Susanne Dunlap at no charge for my honest review through Historical Fiction Historical Book Tours. All opinions are my own.
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About The Courtesan’s Daughter:
What happens when a daughter’s dream and a mother’s sordid past collide?
New York, 1910. Seventeen-year-old Sylvie and her French-immigrant mother Justine eke out a living doing piecework in a tenement on the Lower East Side, while Sylvie attends school so that she can escape their life of poverty by becoming a teacher.
At least, that’s what her mother believes should happen. Sylvie, though, has a different dream. She wants to be a star in the new moving pictures, just like the beautiful Vitagraph Girl. When she meets a dangerously handsome Italian boy at church one Sunday and he encourages her ambitions, she begins secretly taking steps toward the career she knows her mother won’t approve of.
But Sylvie isn’t the only one with secrets. Justine has kept her sordid past from Sylvie ever since they came to New York fifteen years before, stitching together a fabric of lies along with the shirtwaists she finishes every day, doing everything in her power to keep the truth from her daughter-that she fled Paris as a courtesan after committing a crime that could still get her arrested, or worse.
When Justine’s past catches up with her in a single act of brutality, Sylvie witnesses what she thinks is her mother’s betrayal and runs away during a freak blizzard, putting them both in grave danger.
You can purchase The Courtesan’s Daughter on Amazon.com
About the Author:
Susanne Dunlap is the author of twelve works of historical fiction for adults and teens, as well as an Author Accelerator Certified Book Coach. Her love of historical fiction arose partly from her studies in music history at Yale University (PhD, 1999), partly from her lifelong interest in women in the arts as a pianist and non-profit performing arts executive.
Her novel The Paris Affair won first place in its category in the CIBA Dante Rossetti awards for Young Adult Fiction. The Musician’s Daughter was a Junior Library Guild Selection and a Bank Street Children’s Book of the Year, and was nominated for the Utah Book Award and the Missouri Gateway Reader’s Prize. In the Shadow of the Lamp was an Eliot Rosewater Indiana High School Book Award nominee. Susanne earned her BA and an MA (musicology) from Smith College, and lives in Biddeford, ME, with her little dog Betty.
For more information, please visit Susanne Dunlap’s website. You can follow author Susanne Dunlap on Facebook, Twitter, Goodreads, Instagram, Pinterest, and BookBub.
My Opinion:
The Courtesan’s Daughter is the story of the bond between a mother and her child most of all. It’s a very compelling tale with two strong female protagonists; one looking forwards in hope and one looking backwards in fear.
New York City in 1910 is not exactly hospitable for two poor females but Sylvie and Justine are making it work. Justine does piece work as a seamstress and works hard to allow Sylvie to go to school and get an education so she can advance out of this life. In her spare time Sylvie helps her mother but she longs to be an actress on the screen, not the teacher her mother wants her to be.
With the help of a young man she barely knows Sylvie gets her wish but it doesn’t fulfill her dreams, only brings her pain. As women have known for time immemorial, men hold the power and they will use it. Sylvie is now also keeping secrets from her mother.
Will she find that it is all worth it or is the world she was so desperate to enter not quite the storybook land she thought it would be? Do dreams come true? Especially for girls like Sylvie.
This was a very compelling read and one that kept me turning the pages from the beginning. I didn’t want to put it down and the only thing that made me was having to go to sleep. The book was finished over the course of two days and I wanted to find out how these two women fared.
It was certainly not an easy time in history and things were going to get worse before they got better. Sylvie’s story shows the strength of dreams and the force of a desire to do what one wants in the face of familial opposition. A story for any and all generations for sure. It made for a tale full of ups, downs, love, sorrow and ultimately triumph. I am happy I had the chance to read it.
Rating:
5
Other books I have reviewed by Susanne Dunlap:
